EU's antitrust chief has met Google's Schmidt

[March 03, 2015]  BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union's antitrust chief has met Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt as she seeks to resolve a four-year investigation into complaints that the Internet search giant abuses its dominance.

European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager met Schmidt on Monday, her spokesman Ricardo Cardoso said in an email.

In recent weeks Vestager has met more than a dozen Google complainants, including executives from Microsoft, German publisher Axel Springer, mapping companies and price comparison sites to get feedback on the case.

The world's most popular Internet search engine has made three unsuccessful offers to settle the case but failed following opposition within the European Commission, criticism by some politicians in Germany and lobbying from critics.

Complainants say Google squeezes them out in Internet search results. The company could face a fine up to 10 percent of its global revenues or as much as $6.6 billion if found guilty of breaching EU rules.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Jason Neely)

[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.